Idaho Falls Taekwondo team returns from Worlds with three medals, invaluable experience
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IDAHO FALLS — Ferocity Martial Arts did not return from last month’s World Championships with the red letters of a World Champ, but they brought back great experiences — and three medals.
Two Ferocity competitors, 13-year-old Maya Hendricks and 10-year-old Santiago Arzabala, each finished third, while 16-year-old Christopher Huber finished second.
During the World Championships, which took place the final weekend of July, in Phoenix, competitors battled in team sparring and individual combat. The sparring, according to Ferocity coaches, is a battle of striking using hands and feet, while combat involves the use of a baton.
All three ferocity medals came in the individual combat portion of the tournament, leaving coach Darcy Drefs very pleased.
Drefs is a certified Taekwondo instructor who helps coach sparring, but her main duties at Ferocity find her teaching the combat portion of the sport. She told EastIdahoNews.com while she was very excited for the way the team competed, she was especially happy for her students’ performance in combat.
“It was awesome. I am so proud of them,” she said. “When they do the individual, we can’t coach them — when they’re doing teams, we can coach — so I just get to sit back and just — I’m more nervous than they are. But they made me very proud. It was so fun to watch.”
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Third-place finishes for Arzabala and Hendricks means they won their final match. Huber, on the other hand, came mere points from the top spot. He lost the title match by just three points — 10-7.
He told EastIdahoNews.com his match offered a great lesson: that the ultra-quick competitors at the Worlds level are fast to attack your front leg for easy points. But, he added, he has no regrets, and could not be happier with how he finished.
Drefs echoed that sentiment, saying Huber — has nothing to be upset about, nor do any of his teammates.
“I’ms really happy (with how he performed),” Drefs said. “To make it to the Worlds … the level that they’re at — just to be there, it’s huge. … Then, to medal, that’s awesome. And that pushes them.”
Having practiced just a handful of times since returning from Worlds, Drefs said she has already seen the competitors who qualified for Worlds passing along the knowledge they gained in competing.
There are lessons being passed around the studio, she said, and a visible jump in self-esteem.
“We have a good group of kids, where they’re cheering everybody on,” Drefs said. “… They all get along real well.”
And that goes well beyond the studio. As much pride as she has in her students, who improve every day and represented “little old Idaho Falls” on the international stage, Drefs was quick to point out how each member of the Ferocity team has come to be a leader in their own community.
Students take their positive lifestyle with them to school and other sports, and have been known to help their peers in times of need. That, according to Drefs, is as important as competing in Worlds.
“It’s great to see how they all support each other,” she said. “It’s good to see that our students are stepping up and being leaders, and they’re leaders outside of (the studio). … we’re teaching something correct in (the studio) because they’re taking it out of here.”